• Eusebius

    by Published on 10-24-2011 05:26 PM     Number of Views: 2235 
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    There is an increasing number of scholars who believe in an early dating for the NT. There are scholars who believe the Gospel of Matthew was written as early as ten years after the death of Christ. I believe it was written even sooner because of Acts. Acts was written by Luke, and he said it was part two of his former work the gospel of Luke. Acts makes no mention of Paul's death so it was written before Paul died around 65 AD in the Neronian persecutions of Christians. That's an important detail to leave out when you are writing a biography of someone. Therefore, Acts was written around 55 AD so that places Luke around 45 AD. But since Luke took from Mark that places Mark around 35 AD just 2 years after the cross. And because Mark worked closely with Peter, Peter's two books were very early as well.

    Those who hold to this earlier or actual dating of Matthew believe he first wrote his Gospel in Aramaic, and then it was later translated into Greek. Another one of the evidences of this earlier dating of Matthew’s Gospel is that early church leaders such as Irenaeus, Origen, and Eusebius recorded that Matthew first wrote his gospel for Jewish believers while he was still in Palestine. In fact Eusebius, a bishop of Caesarea and known as the father of church history, reported that Matthew wrote his Gospel before he left Palestine to preach in other lands, which Eusebius says happened about 12 years after the death of Christ if taken from 30 AD or 9 years removed if taken from 33 AD. Some scholars believe that this would place the writing of Matthew as early as A.D. 40-45 and as late as A.D. 55. Of course, I place it even sooner since there is no reason to suspect any delay in Matthew recording his perspective or account of the events surrounding the life, death, resurrection and appearances of our Lord Jesus Christ.